Habu Temple Harem life was comfortable but dull. There was only one escape route for an ambitious woman: she had to become the next King's Mother. Her son had to become king of Egypt before one of his half-brothers succeeded to the throne and he became displaced from the succession. Usually the throne passed to the son of the consort, but this was not invariably the case; not all consorts produced sons, and there was always a chance that a favourite son born to a more junior wife might succeed his father. We have no contemporary account of harem life, and can only guess at the amount of scheming and manipulation designed to bring a lesser son to his father's notice. We do know, however, that at least one of Ramesses' secondary queens was not prepared to leave things to chance. A collection of contemporary court papers preserves the details of a plot masterminded from the 'harem of the accompanying' by the secondary queen Tiy, and supported by a number...